Buying a digital camera to enter the world of digital photography? Before you start shopping for a digital camera, or even considering switching to one, it will be helpful if you know the lingo. Understand what the salespeople are talking about when they drop these digital camera terms.
HOW MANY MEGAPIXELS?
A megapixel refers to one million pixels. The amount of detail that the camera can capture is called the resolution, and it is measured in pixels. A pixel is a tiny square on a computerized display that is so small it appears as a dot. The display screen is a solid grid of these squares or dots, which can be easily seen with a magnifying glass. The more pixels or dots that make up the display screen, the clearer the resolution or image will be.
The picture quality capability of Digital Cameras is measured in megapixels. A 3.1 megapixel camera can take pictures with a resolution of 2048 x 1536, which equals 3,145,728 pixels. That is, the resulting image will be made up of 3.1 megapixels. The number of megapixels required for your camera depends on what the camera will be used for, and what size prints are desired. A greater megapixel camera will be capable of delivering high resolution prints in large sizes.
If you do not wish to print digital photos at all, but prefer to view images on the computer or television display, purchasing a high megapixel camera is not required. In fact, with a 3-megapixel camera, you can take a higher-resolution picture than most computer monitors can display.
If you are not going to make large size prints, paying for more megapixels will be a waste of money.
ZOOM: DIGITAL OR OPTICAL?
What matters is Optical and not Digital. You might have seen Digital Camera advertisements boasting about Digital and Optical zooms. Normally most of them come with a large number for the Digital Zoom. This only serves to confuse consumers.
With optical zoom lens you can actually “move” closer to the subject of the photograph without losing quality. Using the optical zoom feature you can take the photograph of a distant subject and still get a clear, close-up image.
Digital zoom never brings you closer to the subject of the photograph. When you apply Digital Zoom, the camera crops the entire image, and then digitally enlarges to the size of the display the portion you want to zoom in on. This results in a loss of quality, and is no different than cropping and enlarging an image with any commercially available editing software. When you use digital zoom on the camera, the image quality is irreversibly lost. Remember that optical zoom is the way to go, since it won’t result in image degradation.
FOCUS (AUTO & MANUAL)
Focus stands for concentrating on the central subject in the frame as you press the shutter button of the camera. Nearly every digital camera utilizes some kind of autofocus capability, a technology which lets the camera focus automatically on the central subject in the frame.
More sophisticated cameras may also offer manual focus, either as a set of predetermined focus settings, or as a manual focus ring or lever. Both manual focus and auto focus can produce great results in almost all circumstances - however, manual focus gives you increased control over the detail and clarity of your photos, especially if you plan on taking non-traditional shots and close-ups.
EXPOSURE, APERTURE, SHUTTER SPEED, ISO SENSITIVITY, etc.
Photography is ultimately a game of light. The word camera comes from the Latin phrase ‘Camera Obscura’, which means ‘Dark Room’. In fact the camera is a light-tight body. To get a clear picture you need to ensure that the right amount of light goes onto the camera film or sensor. Quite often a picture or a shot is referred to as an ‘exposure’. Yes, to record the picture the sensor in the camera is exposed to light. The amount of light that goes onto the sensor determines the ultimate quality of the picture.
Two important terms we need to understand here are the ‘Aperture’ and ‘Shutter Speed’. Aperture is the opening through which light goes onto the sensor inside the camera. Shutter Speed is the amount of time that the shutter of the camera is open or in other words, the amount of time light can pass through the Aperture.
Some cameras offer menu options to adjust Aperture Value and Shutter Speed. Aperture Value and Shutter Speed are closely related. With a ‘Large Aperture’ you can use a ‘Fast Shutter Speed’ to harness the light. Similarly, if you are shooting with a ’slower shutter speed’, you can use a ’small aperture size’ to harness light.
Aperture is measured in ‘f-stops’; f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6,f/8,f/22 etc. One thing confusing is that large apertures are given f/stop smaller numbers and smaller apertures have larger f-stop numbers. So with f/2.8 you have a much larger aperture than f/22.
Shutter speed is measured in fractions of seconds. The bigger the denominator the faster the speed (ie 1/1000 is much faster than 1/30).
Another important term is ISO/ASA. It indicates how sensitive the sensor is to light or how sensitive the film is to light. The more sensitive, the more light can be captured at a given time. The ISO sensitivity is measured in numbers (100, 200, 400, 800 etc). The lower the number the lower the sensitivity of the film and the finer the grain in the shots you’re taking.
Exposure = Aperture + Shutter Speed+ ISO
A change in one of the elements will impact the others. This means that you can never really isolate just one of the elements alone but always need to have the others in the back of your mind.
SHOOT MODES
Digital cameras offer many different modes to shoot pictures.
· Automatic mode: In this mode the camera selects all the necessary settings on its own. This mode is very useful for somebody who is new to digital cameras and digital photography.
· Program AE: AE is auto exposure and in this mode the camera determines the exposure automatically and you can select certain other settings like focusing, manually.
· Shutter Speed Priority: In this mode the camera allows the user to select the Shutter Speed and the Aperture is automatically selected.
.Aperture Priority: Here the camera allows the user to select the Aperture and the Shutter Speed is automatically selected.
· Manual Mode: User manually selects the shutter speed and aperture.
· Burst Mode: Continuous mode, often called burst mode, lets you press and hold a camera’s shutter button to capture a series of shots in rapid succession. This mode is great for recording action scenes, high-energy kids, and pets.
· Macro Mode: This mode changes the focus setting to let the camera focus on subjects that are very close to the lens. Macro mode is perfect for shooting close-ups of flowers or insects.
PICTBRIDGE (PictBridge)
PictBridge is an international direct-print standard adopted by most major manufacturers of digital cameras and photo printers. With PictBridge, you can connect a compatible camera to a PictBridge photo printer via a USB cable, for easy direct printing without the use of a computer. The PictBridge feature of the camera will work only with a printer that supports the PictBridge technology.
IMAGE STABILIZATION
A feature that reduces the blurring of images that occurs as a result of camera shake when taking hand-held shots, particularly at slow shutter speeds. Different manufacturers use different names like Anti-blur, SteadyShot, etc.
AVAILABLE CONNECTIONS
Almost all of those new digital camera models offer a USB connection to connect to a computer. However, certain manufacturers offer Audio/Video connections that enable you to connect the camera to a TV and enjoy the pictures on the TV screen. Newer models offer HD (High Definition) outputs to view the recorded pictures on an HD TV. It will be interesting watching your camera pictures on big screen.
RECORDING MEDIA
With conventional film cameras the recording media was the film. Digital Cameras use built-in memory or detachable memory like Memory Stick to store pictures. With most of them, the internal memory will be a few megabytes and for additional storage you will need to use Memory Stick or other types of detachable memory. Also, several manufacturers offer digital cameras with gigabytes of internal memory. As far as picture quality is concerned there is no difference between these two types of recording media. However, if it is detachable memory like Memory Stick, you can use it in a printer or computer with a Memory Stick slot. You can even keep the Memory Stick in your pocket and go to the local print shot to have your pictures printed. Some TV models have a Memory Stick slot on them and you can view the pictures on the TV screen by inserting the Memory Stick from the camera into the Memory Stick slot on the TV. Further, several USB card readers are available in the market to avoid the hassles of connecting the camera to a computer. A card reader is very helpful, if your camera is not compatible with the Operating System on your computer.
POINT AND SHOOT OR SLR?
All those digital cameras fall into two basic categories- Point & Shoot and SLR. A Point & Shoot one is designed primarily for simple operation. It uses automatic adjustments for focus, exposure, etc. In short, it is an ‘easy to use camera’ and you need not be aware of much photographic techniques to use it.
On the other hand a single-lens reflex (SLR) camera uses several manual adjustments to capture a picture. They are high-end and professional cameras, where you buy camera body and lens separately. Compared to Point & Shoot ones, SLR models are too costly.
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